#who really pushed for raw performances; women who are messy

[isagrimorie]

what makes them such good scene partners is sincerely just trust#they didn't need to discuss it#they knew they could push at each other#they could go where they needed to#because they always on some level where each other's boundaries were (via @motherconfessor)

[vicunaburger]

Hi! Can I request a Dewey Finn x reader where the reader is in a rock band and Dewey goes to one of their concerts and is amazed by the readers voice especially when she sings When the Party’s over by Our Last Night (it’s a rock cover) and he see’s her the next day or something

Anon, I would like to thank you for introducing me to thatsong cover because DAMN. Also, this is going to be fem!reader as you implied inyour ask. Hope you don’t mind I tweaked the situation just a tad, it justflowed out onto the keyboard that way.

Enjoy your smitten rocker boi… because we all really wantthe smitten rocker boi in our lives, okay??

“Why am I heeerrreee?” Dewey shuffled his feet noisily,attracting a few stares from the other patrons of the bar.

Ned, who was doing his best to half-push, half-drag hisroommate through the modestly crowded space, mumbled his apologies to quell hestaring. He managed to get Dewey seated at a table, and barely sat down himselfbefore Dewey’s head thumped dramatically on the tabletop.

Ned tugged on his friend’s scarf, “Get up- GET UP you lookinsane.”

“Maybe I AM insane. Insane with grief since the muse of rockhas abandoned me!” Dewey bemoaned, “Cursed to wander this earth a talent-lesshusk.”

“Well, if nothing else that school is expanding yourvocabulary,” Ned sighed, gesturing to the bartender to have some drinks sentover. “C’mon, I brought you out here to enjoy yourself, not bring down everyoneelse.”

The brunette attempted to sit himself upright, “…you didn’tdisagree about the talent-less part.”

With a heavy sigh, Ned gestured to the small makeshift stagein a corner of the bar, “They’re letting anyone go up and perform tonight, gobe talented then.”

Dewey quickly looked around, spotting a sign near the stagewritten in sloppy permanent marker, “Amateurnight?!”

Shushing him, his friend slid over one of the beers thata waitress had brought to them, “I thought it would help get you out of theslump.”

Not bothering with the drink, Dewey returned to his formerposition of laying his head on the table, mumbling something incoherent.

Had he bothered to keep his head up, he would have noticedthe band setting up on the tiny stage. They were comprised of four women wholooked like they had just stepped out of the late 80s. Each wore a differentstyle of dress, making them clash horribly, but somehow fit together in thekitschy nature of their gimmick.

One particular member, the best self-taught bass player on earth if you said so yourself, was sporting acidwash denim and teased hair pulled into scrunchies. You fiddled with the bass,tuning it a bit before looking out into the crowd, noticing the… sad… possiblydrunk guy at table three. Great, it was thatkind of night.

Your band mates introduced themselves to a smattering ofapplause before starting their set, but you were still focused on the guylaying on table. You couldn’t help but feel sorry for him, but the fact hewasn’t even pretending to enjoy yourmusic was a turn-off.

Half-way into the set, the lead singer announced they weretaking a break, handing the vocal duties to you for the time being. It wasn’tas though you hadn’t practiced for weeks on your songs, but there was still atinge of nervousness in your fingers as you started to play the familiarmelody. Giving yourself something to focus on, you started singing to the guyat able three; finding it easy since he wasn’t looking at you.

Don’t you know I’m nogood for you?I’ve learned to lose, you can’t afford to…

What was that voice?

Dewey sat up, his attention immediately pinned on the girlsinging. When had the band started? He had been so lost in his own misery thathe drowned out all other sound around him, save for that voice. It was shaky, sure, but there was that raw qualityabout it. Different from the highly trained voices he taught for at HoraceGreen, and definitely not the auto-mixed mess he often heard on the radio.

The body belonging to that voice was something else. He found himself staring at her, leaning forwardand supporting his chin in his hands. Ned noticed the sudden change in hiscompanion, looking from him to the girl in quick succession.

“…feel better, Dew?” Ned asked, sipping his beer quietly.

“Shhhh, shhh!” Dewey waved a hand in Ned’s face, “I wannahear this.”

As you started in on the last chorus of the song, you sawthe guy at table three sitting up, seemingly unable to look at anything elsebut you. Embarrassed, you fumbled on one of the chords, but managed to recover enough to not ruin the remainder of the music.

He continued to watch you through the rest of your band’sset, even when you went back to just playing in the background. His roundedface and messy hair looked so… genuine?Sincere? You couldn’t help but give him a small wave when you had a moment’spause in playing.

“Ned. Ned. NED. Did you see that?” Dewey shook the tallerman next to him, grabbing his shirt collar and pulling him in to whisper. “She.Waved. At. Me.”

Ned grumbled, cleaning up the beer that had spilled on himduring Dewey’s sudden burst of energy, “Yeah, I see.”

“And you heard her sing? It was like… like… I dunno.Something poetic.” Dewey grabbed a pen out of his shirt pocket – loathe as hewas to carry them around, they didcome in handy – and started scribbling furiously on a napkin.

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to slip her your number,”Ned deadpanned.

“Nope, but we have to go now. Gotta get home. Get to theaxe.” Dewey folded the napkin, getting up and running over to the band as theyfinished playing.

Stunned, you could only mutely take the napkin the guy fromtable three handed you, unable to even say “thank you” before he grabbed hisfriend and ran out of the bar. Gingerly, you opened the napkin, expecting somecheesy pick up line and a number.

Instead, written in messy, tiny scrawl were… lyrics?

Your face reddened in a deep blush, your eyes pouring overeach word as they flowed down the page. Little notes were scribbled in themargins; key changes, suggestions for tone, etc. A whole song written in yourexact key, for your exact range.

Down at the bottom, there was a phone number, and one morenote:

I’ve got a guitar.Bring your bass. Tomorrow. - Dewey Finn

[annamaxwell-girlinnovators]

Week 8 - Lady Bird

After graduating from Barnard College, Greta Gerwig began her career as an actress and playwright. In 2017, as an actor-turned-director solo debut, her first film, Lady Bird, sings with the blossoming prowess of distilling strength into applicable new directions. Greta Gerwig takes her manic, impossibly radical energy as a performer and shapes it gently and sweetly. She told her own story as a daughter of Sacramento, a girl bursting with creativity and personality who is both trapped in and bolstered by hometown pride. The result is a 'first feature' seemingly made by a master filmmaker at the height of her career, making so many young women feel seen. Lady Bird, as an endeavor, is a beautifully intimidating film. As a female director, she has made massive strides in a male-dominated profession.

In many ways, the film feels like a memory, even if it's not your own. Lady Bird lives in a Catholic community in Sacramento. She has a difficult relationship with other family members, and at school, her own anxiety has gotten in the way of personal relationships with friends at school - and she seeks a new home away from where she is. The film is a cohesive, economic tidal wave of moments, feelings, and montages that give way to weeks and months of unspoken words adding up to mountains of buried regret. Its uproarious comedy runs right along a particular line of financial instability and struggling familial relations, crossing over via character interaction and not because of Gerwig's intent of comedy. Nothing is left to chance, and so the film becomes it's own perfectly choreographed musical of heartbreak and warmth, hatred and love, missed calls and second chances. While navigating being an awkward teen with a complex relationship with her own mother, I felt seen more than in other coming-of-age movies I have seen. It is a unique adaptation to the female perspective because of its ability to be so raw, and so true to the experience of adolescence and skipping many of the cliches you might expect. When you drift apart from your friends, knowing your parents love you but feeling like they don’t like you, constantly comparing yourself to someone who’s richer or prettier -  Lady Bird somehow perfectly walks the fine line between being uniquely personal and universally relatable.

This movie holds a very special meaning for my mother and me - so much so that she calls me Ladybird. In and of itself, one genuinely great element is the relationship between Lady Bird and her mother. Ronan and Metcalf are both fantastic here, and their scenes are where Gerwig's vision truly crystallizes. The mother-daughter dynamic encompasses all the messiness of life, the push, and pull of what's in front of you and what's behind you. The single most important theme of the film is arguably contradiction, precisely because life is about the contradictions that allow you to learn and grow and hate people and love people. Contradictions are a part of growing up, maybe taking the form of a hometown you can't help but feel connected to or a future you can't help but long for. And maybe you're sick of certain people, but you really do love them, but you don't express that in the best of ways. And maybe you're arguing with someone, and then you see a dress you both like, and everything is okay for a moment. And maybe you're just changing, and you have no idea who you're going to be, and "I don't know" is the prevailing question in your life. Ultimately, you live and thrive in those contradictions, and raising someone you love can become something joyously grueling. Being raised by someone you love can be beautifully frustrating. On a surface level, raising a child is ultimately a transitional and biological mechanism of life, but there's something very meaningful to be said about those formative years. And all of it can be glimpsed in the tiny frailty of a rearview mirror, captured in the most fleeting of glances but tinged with the endurance of hope and love. Watching this movie with my own mother made us both cry, appreciating all of the pains we both feel in our relationship. It is hard to capture the unique dynamics of the complexities of this relationship, but Gerwig captures the torment of being 17.

Lady Bird is, in a sense, an amalgamation of tropes and teenage insecurities put under an incredibly intimate, personal lens. When something happens to Lady Bird, it feels like it's the first time it's ever happened. Every heartbreak is a pain we've never felt before because that's how she feels. Perspective is everything in filmmaking, and Gerwig does an exceptional job of keeping us in her protagonist's place, with perhaps a bit more awareness of the world. A special payoff comes at the end of the story. Lady Bird arrives in New York, still alienated from her mother, still brooding and unhappy. She drinks too much at a party and finds herself in the hospital. In the bed next to her in the emergency room is a very young boy, his eye bandaged, sitting next to his mother who gives him comfort. It triggers something in Lady Bird. Wandering away from the hospital, she realizes that it is Sunday morning, and she enters a church, where she listens to the tones of a choir singing. Moved to tears, she then leaves a message, apologizing, on her mother’s cell phone. That adoration for time's precious ticking clock, and for the relationships found and lost within. This brings a sensation that we have all felt - of picking up that phone and calling your mom, pressing each number as your head gets heavier and heavier and the world begins to swirl as you try to say what you've been thinking for years. It is a moment of realization and her true coming of age - versus her moments with Kyle or battles with self-confidence.

This movie has always been one of my favorites, many for personal reasons, but even removing myself from my own experiences, it is a fantastic film - and one that has touched so many lives. The film has since been nominated for five Oscars, including Best Director. This shouldn’t be any more noteworthy than another film’s success, but it is—women behind the camera rarely get mainstream recognition for their work. The nod makes Gerwig just the fifth woman nominated for directing in 90 years of Academy Awards—and the first female nominee since Kathryn Bigelow became the only woman to win, for The Hurt Locker in 2010. Greta Gerwig - and this film - certainly deserve all of this recognition and more.

[wrestlinghasmelike-blog]

Monday Night Raw review- December 18th, 2017

Hello hello! I hope everyone had a good Monday! I took my dad to see Star Wars and this was my second time seeing it and I still loved it so much and I cry every time I see my Princess Carrie Fisher on the screen. Now it’s time for Raw! 

Please let me know what you thought of the show and this review! Any type of feedback is appreciated! Thanks very much!

Opening- The biggest bullshit I’ve ever seen in my life..

I can’t believe this. I’m actually so mad at this. Do I really want to see Braun vs. Kane vs. Brock at the Royal Rumble? NO, I DON’T! I want to see the guy who deserves to be in the title picture; a Mr. Finn Balor! As a fan of Finn, I want to see him with the title, of course, that’s me being biased. But we’ve already seen Braun against Brock, and I personally don’t want to see it again. When you throw Kane in the match, who was thrown in for no reason and isn’t he supposed to be running for Mayor somewhere that isn’t here? It’s just stupid, and it sucks as a wrestling fan to see the same stories and the same people fighting for the title, when there are clearly better talents to contend for this title! I’m very upset, I hope things change after this. I’m feeling a little salty now.

Seth v. Samoa Joe, oh wait, it’s Jason Jordan?

At first, I was really hyped to see this match, but then it, unfortunately, turned into Jason against Seth, and no one was happy about that. I haven’t always been super vocal about how much I like Seth, but I really like Seth. I think he’s great in the ring and only continues to get better. I really liked when Joe came out and he was like, “I’m the popular boy and everyone wants to dance with me!” That was fantastic! Before the match was going to start, Jordan pushed Seth down like a weenie, and was that supposed to make me believe that this made Seth mad and want to wrestle Jordan?? And of course, Joe is going to join them at ringside. Jordan started this match off with some nice amateur collegiate wrestling moves, which I can appreciate since I wrestled in high school. As much as I hate Jordan, and I really do hate him, his in-ring performance has been really impressing me and improving over the past few weeks. Perhaps Jordan has some in the back coaching him a bit and giving him some direction? Jordan had a cool Boston Crab looking hold on Seth, and for me, Seth was overselling just a bit too much. My favorite move in the match was the beautiful suicide dive that Seth did on Jason, but I don’t understand Seth’s new finisher with that weird knee thing? How is that supposed to be believable to me as something that would knock someone out in a match? Anyway, I love seeing destructive Joe, and I wish I didn’t have to see Jason Jordan again.

Finn Balor aka Smiley Boy v. Miztourage in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match

Finn’s smile almost made me cry, it made me really emotional. At least he’s smiling while the company screws him over. I won’t be over that smile for the next week it made my heart grow! I’m done with seeing him take on the Miztourage and keep them busy for The Miz, but maybe this could turn into a feud between him and The Miz? I would want to see that! I can already tell you that this match is going to end in a DQ and Miztourage is just going to gang up on Finn. WHEN THE NETWORK CAME BACK FROM COMMERCIAL FINN HAD THE BIGGEST SMILE ON HIS FACE AND I’M SO EMOTIONAL I LOVE HIM A LOT I’M SO SORRY. I have a feeling, at the beginning of this match, that Axel and Dallas are going to be classic heels and run away from Finn a lot. I think Finn is doing fine in this handicap match, and I think his stamina can keep him going. Finn is keeping good control of the match, and I’m happy this is getting more time than I thought it was going to get! Axel through Finn into the corner pretty hard, and I like the intensity that the Miztourage is bringing tonight. Finn went for the Coup de Grace, and this match is now ending like I thought it would with the attack and gang up on Finn. OH HEY IT’S HIDEO! This is like when Finn debuted on NXT and they teamed up! So cute, but I really hope this means that Finn isn’t moving to the Cruiserweights to team with Hideo? I’m sure Finn would do great and excel, but no, he’s a main roster guy. I’m glad Finn looked happy, and I hope something better comes his way soon.

Finn and Hideo v. Miztourage

What a pleasant surprise! More Finn! And now this is a tag match! Curtis with a nice backbreaker to Finn, which turned into nice pressure from Miztourage. I’m so happy that this segment/match wasn’t over because I was ready for them to move on, now only if commentary would stop talking about other things other than this match. Again, I really hope this doesn’t mean that Finn will move with Hideo, but we’ll see. Hideo looks phenomenal in this match, and he’s not stopping his attack! He got the pin with a weird looking GTS on Curtis, but I’m glad Hideo had his moment to shine on Raw. Finn is such a good pal, I’m happy I got a lot of Finn time tonight. 

Drew Gulak v. Cedric Alexander

I hope that this match impresses me! I’ve been very happy with 205′s as of late, and I hope for great things with this match. Drew Gulak saying he’s a Jar Jar Binks was pretty good, but not everyone is going to understand that comment I guess. Drew is also a great actor, and had a fantastic reaction to Cedric when his music dropped. I don’t know if Drew is a good wrestler or not, but he looks like he knows where to fall! I didn’t want to hear Enzo on commentary at all, and it’s taking away from the match. Cedric is a great athlete, and he looks at home in the cruiserweight division. Before the commercial break, not much has happened, but Cedric does seem to have the upperhand, but he may not be the favorite to win this match! I know I’d love to see Gulak win here! With the return of the show, Gulak has the upperhand! Gulak has had the past two pins on Cedric, but Cedric has kicked out. Enzo is the worst on commentary and he won’t shut up and he won’t let anyone else talk, and he’s not talking about anything! I hate it! Everyone was trying to tell him to stop, but he was just getting angry about it! A good pinning sequence showed some great technical skills from both of these guys, but then Cedric had a great flip that turned Gulak inside out and pinned Gulak, with a kickout at two and a half! Gulak caught a kick from Cedric and turned into a nice an ankle lock, but Cedric grabbed the ropes for a force break! Enzo finally left commentary to the back, but Gulak chopped Cedric right in the throat! Cedric delivered a great elbow that caught Gulak right in the mouth, and Cedric picked up the win. A pretty great show by these two guys, I’m happy with what I saw from them!

Asuka v. Alicia Fox

Not that I don’t love Asuka or anything, but I don’t really want to see this rematch again. Absolution will probably interfere again, and then this will be over. I hope Asuka gets good tv time, but I also hope that this match turns out to be a great one! I want to see Alicia actually fight tonight! For the most part, so far, we are getting a match, and Alicia is holding her own. I love Alicia’s character a lot, and she does it well. Alicia delivered an awesome Northen Lights suplex, which turned into a nice technical hold. Michael Cole and Booker T will not shut up, and commentary is really getting on my nerves tonight. Alicia tapped out to the armbar from Asuka, and thankfully Absolution didn’t ruin the match! Not such a great match, but a really great showing from both of these women that I love!

Six Man Tag Match- Jason/Shield v. The Bar/Joe

Did we all really have to suffer and see Jason again in the ring? I’d rather not see this again. Also, why do we have to keep seeing The Bar vs. The Shield? I’m a little sick of it! So far, this match hasn’t shown me much, but I think Dean is playing off a shoulder injury? We saw Seth and Jordan in the match, but Dean is mostly out of the way? Rollins is taking a lot of pressure in this match, but I love seeing Joe being destructive and steam-rolling through people. Cesaro is still really great with the mouth guard, and it looks like all rumors of Sheamus being injured have been thrown away because Sheamus is doing amazing. Rollins has not been able to make a tag in what seems like an hour, so hopefully the team of the good guys can get in and end this match. Sheamus was rammed shoulder-first into the ring post, and it looked like Rollins was going to tag out, but Cesaro came in and dragged him back last minute. Cesaro is showing great strength with Rollins, but now everyone is fighting outside the ring, which is looking a little messy, and the cameraman is not set up in the best spot. Seth was looking for a tag again, but got nowhere as the bar and Joe stopped him. Seth did another suicide dive, and now is Dean’s chance to sell his elbow, and The Bar gets the win for their team with Joe. If Dean really is injured, I wish him a speedy recovery, and maybe this will be the beginning of the separation of the Shield? 

Heath Slater/Rhyno v. The Revival

Hey! The Revival is back! This is pretty awesome to see! It was so unfortunate that these guys got injured when they were trying to make their starts on the main roster, so hopefully they can stay healthy and happy and make their way to obtain the tag titles. A good start so far from Heath and Rhyno, and I can’t believe that these guys took off as a team. Scott Dawson is showing so much power, and I think this team really needs to make a statement and make up a lot of lost time. Heath caught Dawson with a great high kick to the head, and both teams need to rally and pick it up. A sneaky tag, and the Revival hit their amazing finisher to get the win! Welcome back boys! 

Six Women Tag Team Match- You Know Who v. You Know Who with a SPECIAL FANTASTIC ANNOUNCEMENT

So Elias decided he wanted to start this match I guess? Kinda funny, but I only want him here if he’s going to wrestle, honestly. All the women coming out to interrupt Elias was nice because they got a great crowd reaction. And I’m very happy to see the women get the main event spot tonight! They obviously deserve it! Mickie and Paige start this match, and I love having Mickie back and looking strong. Already with a tag to Sasha, and then Paige tags in Mandy Rose. I’m tired of the commentary table talking about how sexy she is, talk about her strength and ability. Sonya then with a tag in, and Absolution with some tornado tagging going on. Paige is back, stomping away at Sasha. I don’t want this match to end with a fluke, let these fantastic women wrestle! Sasha had a great top rope move that I don’t know the name of, but I guess it doesn’t matter because it ended with a DQ, and now all the women are on their way to the ring to deal with Absolution. Nia came first, and I just love her and what she brings to the table (but NOT THE STUFF WITH ENZO THAT CAN BE DONE). NIA DID A DOUBLE SAMOAN DROP AND IT WAS SO GREAT, and then Paige got an attack on Nia, and now the rest of the women’s locker room is here. Stephanie is now on her way to the ring, wearing a not so good leather dress, but I’m wondering what she has to say. OH MAN SHE ANNOUNCED THE FIRST EVER WOMENS ROYAL RUMBLE IM SO EMOTIONAL THIS IS SO AMAZING THE WOMEN ARE MAKING HISTORY AND IM JUST SO PROUD AND HAPPY I CANT WAIT TO SEE THIS NOW! AAAH!

This was a pretty decent show! I thought it was much better than last week’s for sure, except for that awful beginning tonight that I’m still very salty about. I’m glad Finn got a lot of time and that he was just so smiley, my heart feels so big tonight. I am also so happy for the women and the history that they are continuing to rewrite and create. Lastly, I was a little surprised that there was no Roman! Not that I missed him, but it was weird not to have him on the show. I hope you all enjoyed the show! Let me know your thoughts on the show!

Stay tuned for more reviews and posts throughout the week! Happy Holidays everyone!

-Casey

[chelseawolfemusic]

Chelsea Wolfe: In Search of Brutal Honesty // REVOLVER

photograph by TRAVIS SHINN

The intensely private musician shines a light on her personal life and family history to create her most real and raw work yet

Article by STEVE APPLEFORD via REVOLVER

This isn't how Chelsea Wolfe remembers things at all. We're in a corner bar in downtown Los Angeles, a noirish watering hole with a throbbing trip-hop soundtrack that she used to frequent during seven years of living and making music in the naked city. She's returned for an afternoon visit dressed in elegant layers of vampire black; a three-legged raven tattoo is apparent on her left forearm as she hovers over a purplish mixed drink. But everything is askew as a big-screen TV blasts a sporting event and sunlight shines brightly through the long windows around her.

"I'm a little thrown. This bar used to be my favorite," she says, having her first drink here since she moved back to the woods of Northern California a year ago. The shadows are Wolfe's preferred comfort zone, where she makes music in smoky shades of black and gray, with intense flashes of melody and distortion that reflect what the singer-guitarist calls "the brutish side of myself."

Her interior life has also been largely kept in the shadows. She's revealed little of her own story in song lyrics and media interviews, begging off questions that cut too close to the personal.

"I never talk about this stuff," Wolfe says. "My extended family — there is just a lot of darkness there. I don't know how to get into it without being emo."

On her fifth album, Hiss Spun, she finally turns the light on herself, reaching backward to old feelings and memories of self-destruction and the pain of watching a lover fade in a cloud of addiction. The result is her most complete and dynamic offering to date, the definitive achievement thus far of an artist who has won a diverse and devoted fan base by being hard to define, daringly spanning the worlds of goth rock, neo-folk, electronic music and metal. On Hiss Spun, Wolfe whispers and wails to sounds that are characteristically wide-ranging, shifting from noisy to ethe- real, gloomy to cinematic, but the lyrics cut deeper than ever before. On the creeping "The Culling," she hints at some grim family history: "I'll never tell the secrets of my family/Bled out/A cult of anonymity ..." On "Scrape," she rages of "a young nymph defiled."

It comes up more than once, reflecting an old secret that she explains has shattered the peace among her extended family, a subject she isn't ready to fully talk about. "It's too big of a bomb to drop," she says of the secret revealed to her at 19 by her maternal grandmother. "My family is all very estranged because of something that someone did to everyone in my family."

She looks up from her drink and adds casually, "My family is pretty fucked up. The way that I came out is not like a big surprise."

At age seven, Chelsea Wolfe wrote her first poem, already overloaded with atmosphere and observation: a rainy day, dogs barking, a siren rushing past and thoughts about where that siren might be heading. "I would space out sometimes," she recalls. "My family was like, ‘What's wrong with you?' I was thinking about the whole world around me, and all these sounds and sadness and happiness that were happening at the same time."

She grew up in Sacramento, California, splitting time between her mother, her grandmother, and her father and stepmother. One house overlooked a graveyard, with daily funerals of diverse denominations. Her father is a country musician who handed down one of his guitars to Wolfe and taught her how to record in his home studio. (They once sang together at a tribute to Dolly Parton.) When she turned 18, her father drove young Chelsea to get her first tattoo: a Celtic cross on her back.

"I grew up pretty fast. I had older sisters. By the time I was 11, I was drinking 40s and getting fucked up and getting in trouble and smoking weed," she remembers. By high school, she was bored enough with drink and drugs to stop, then started experimenting with it again in her twenties.

Her early musical forays included a grungy trio called the Red Host, named after a 1911 erotic expressionist painting by Egon Schiele. Also in the group was her close friend Jess Gowrie, who plays drums in her current backing band. The songs were raw and brooding, hinting at the Wolfe music to come, but after a couple of years of playing around town, she chose a solo path. There was a falling out with Gowrie, and they were mostly out of touch for several years.

"I knew that I had to follow my own vision. I was young and still very curious about what I could do musically on my own and with other people," Wolfe says now. "I knew that it was going to be a very painful thing. So a lot of getting over that was her forgiving me for leaving this project, and me forgiving myself for hurting a good friend."

Her reunion with Gowrie began when Wolfe was again spending time in Sacramento after years away. Gowrie took her out regularly for karaoke, and Wolfe made Black Sabbath's teary "Changes" and other Ozzy standards her specialty. The drummer turned her on to some Nineties music (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, etc.) Wolfe missed the first time around. They also began experimenting with their own music again, a collaboration that evolved into a new album under the Wolfe name: Hiss Spun.

"Some of my favorite moments on the record are when she is really going wild," Wolfe says of Gowrie, whose influence on the singer goes back a decade. "She really helped me become the frontperson that I am because I was always really shy," Wolfe says. "She was always really encouraging and pushing me to play lead guitar parts and sing and do as much as I could. When we reunited, it was almost like a triumph: We're friends again, we're making music together again. I really wanted her to shine on this record."

Another key player on several Hiss Spun tracks is guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age. Wolfe met the sharp-dressed guitarist while she was opening a short run of shows with Queens in 2014. Van Leeuwen introduced himself by mixing drinks for Wolfe and her band backstage. Also on that tour, Wolfe got an essential piece of advice and encouragement from Queens leader Josh Homme.

During her shows, Wolfe often spits onstage, but was careful on that tour not to hit any Queens gear. Homme told her not to worry. "I didn't want to fuck up their stage," she says now. "Josh was like, ‘No, do your show fully. Be you and go for it.' Having the backing of a band you look up to so much was really great for my confidence as a live performer. I feel like I've grown a lot since that tour."

During the Hiss Spun sessions late last year, Van Leeuwen traveled out to Salem, Massachusetts, for a few days to join Wolfe at recording engineer (and Converge guitarist) Kurt Ballou's GodCity Studios. "Instantly, it was great," she recalls. "I was begging Kurt: ‘Please, let's start recording and get all this shit and figure out the right direction to go.' Troy would hit these notes that were gut-wrenching."

It's a descriptor that applies to Wolfe's music in general. At their core, her songs are still inspired by the "real and raw and fucked-up" examples of Hank Williams and Townes Van Zandt, American songwriters who shared a gift for authenticity and despair. "It's the honesty of it," she explains. "I always wanted to know there are two sides to every story. I want some brutal honesty."

On Hiss Spun, Wolfe's brand of brutal honesty begins with a wild screech of feedback, launching the emotional swirl of "Spun," as electric guitars slice across a foundation of distortion and Wolfe sings, soft and soaring: "You leave me reckless, you leave me sick/I destroy myself and want it again."

The sound is meticulously layered, shifting from delicate to grinding on "Spun," which Ballou called "a big sloppy rock song." The album's first single, "16 Psyche," follows a similar trajectory, unfolding from a brooding riff and menacingly tumbling beats. Then comes "Vex," colliding death-metal angst with Gothic gloom, erupting with a guttural roar from guest vocalist Aaron Turner of Isis, Old Man Gloom and Sumac. "I get chills every time he comes in," says Wolfe.

An emotional peak on the new album is "Twin Fawn," equal parts romance and tragedy, beauty and loss. "It hurts to stay, but it hurts to stop," Wolfe sings to an achingly gentle guitar that soon explodes with thundering wrath, as she cries: "You cut me open/You lived inside."

"Part of that is about being in love with someone who's addicted to drugs," she explains. "I've experienced that before — trying to help that person, and at the same time the frustration when someone doesn't want to be helped. There are a lot of love songs out there. I hope that I can write a good love song someday, but for now I tend to write songs about the more practical sides of love — when you're actually putting work in, spending time with someone, trying to help them through something, or they're trying to help you through something, the give and take.

"There's definitely some anger on this album," she continues. "There's anger about the election and what's to come from that. There's anger that's directly expressed from the viewpoint of a woman, and thinking about what my foremothers had to go through, and what I had to go through sometimes."

On the cover of Hiss Spun, Wolfe depicts herself as a cornered animal, photographed on her knees and backed against a white wall in a black dress made of hair, head bent downward, a single eye peering dangerously forward. "I knew that I wanted to represent some kind of messiness and just being fucked up," she says of the feral image. "I do feel like there is a lot of pressure on women artists to be like, ‘I have my shit together' — and it's not always like that. I'm a messy person. I'm self-destructive a lot of time. I wanted to represent that."

A week after her visit to the bar in Los Angeles, Wolfe is on the phone, between rehearsals back home with her band. A fall tour of the U.S. is still many weeks away. Her family secret comes up, and she considers the possibility that revealing too little could lead to wild imaginings.

She hesitates to say more. "I really don't want to hurt anyone in my family, because a lot of them were more affected by it than I was," she says. After a moment, she explains, "Basically, my great-grandfather was a pedophile and fucked up every woman in my family. I don't always feel that it's my story to tell, because it was an older generation of women who had the worst of it."

It's a story that mostly unfolded years before her birth, but Wolfe remembers him. "I was around him when I was a little kid. So there is some blurriness there that I won't get into."

Bringing the story into the light, and dealing with her family history, has been part of a larger process for Wolfe. It's not just a personal journey, but also one meant to connect with listeners dealing with their own lives and anxiety. She makes a point of talking to fans after her shows.

"I've never gone to therapy. This is my version of that," she says of making art that explores life's hidden places. "At the same time, I'm trying to write from the human experience or write about being this mess of a person who's trying to come to terms with things, and finding strength through that. Even though there are some really dark moments on this record, all of my music is about overcoming that and pushing forward and surviving another day."

[ohnojustimagine]

Stress Relief

Austin Aries/Reader, 1660 words, explicit

***

You stride down one of the labyrinth of corridors backstage, flicking through the sheaf of papers attached to the clipboard you’re holding and absent-mindedly muttering to yourself as you mentally check off the endless list of tasks you’re responsible for tonight. Working in technical logistics on a live show as huge as Raw might be your dream job, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. You love every minute of it, pressure and all, but still, sometimes you’re tempted to tear your hair out in frustration, and tonight’s one of those nights.

You briefly glance up to see someone walking towards you, and yes, you sigh internally, who else would it be but the guy with the world’s worst sense of timing, Austin Aries. It’s not as if you particularly dislike him or anything, it’s more that he’s annoying as hell and, well… just plain weird.

Some of the talent are friendly with the crew, some of them aren’t, and you honestly couldn’t give a shit which as long as they all pay attention to the schedule and are where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be. But Austin is different. He’s a good worker, definitely, never missing a cue, never unprepared for a match, but he’s also always kind of there when you least expect it, and you’re beginning to find it unnerving.

Especially because all he ever does is basically hover in the most disconcerting manner possible, and, sometimes, offer you a banana. You never accept, and if you try to talk to him further, he’ll make some bullshit excuse and immediately walk away, like you’ve got some scary communicable disease or something and, frankly, you’re sick of it.

Tonight, he stops in front of you. His match is due to start not too long from now, and he’s already dressed ready for the ring, wearing a pair of silver trunks and that fluffy jacket.

“Can I help you?” you ask, trying not to be short with him, because you really don’t have time for this.

For a moment he doesn’t reply, but then says, seemingly concerned, “You look stressed.”

“Well, yeah,” you answer, this time not bothering to hide your irritation, “that’s because I am.”

“Have a banana.” He produces said banana from inside his jacket like magic and holds it up in front of you.

You bite back a few choice words, simply saying, “No thanks.”

He tilts his head to one side, regarding you. “The potassium would help.”

You take a deep breath, because you’re about ready to snap, but then you suddenly notice the way he’s looking at you. And maybe you’re imagining it, surely you would have to be, but you could swear he’s looking at you like… that.

There’s some of the most beautiful women in the world wandering around here backstage, and while you know you’re not ugly, you’re not exactly the glamorous type when you’re on the job. Not with your hair scraped back into a messy ponytail, dressed in faded jeans and a slightly stained t-shirt.

But apparently that doesn’t matter to Austin, because yeah, that’s a look. And fucking great, because this is all you need right now, some entitled asshole thinking it’s okay hit on you at work. You’re all out of patience tonight, so you toss your clipboard on a nearby crate, say, “Fine,” and grab the banana out of his hand.

You hold it by the base, stripping the peel away in three neat sections, then hold Austin’s gaze, opening your mouth and going down on the damn thing. Like, all the way down, until the tip of the banana hits the back of your throat. You pull back slowly, far enough that you can take a good size bite, which you chew and swallow before sliding your mouth down again, this time taking a moment to showily suck on it, your cheeks hollowing. You repeat the process several times, making as much of a performance of it as you can until the banana’s almost gone.

“Oh,” Austin says softly, his eyes wide, and you smirk to yourself, taking one last bite.

“You know,” you say, “I do feel better.” You hand Austin the empty peel, and he takes it unthinkingly, a vaguely panicked expression on his face.

“I have to…” he stutters out, glancing helplessly downwards.

You follow his gaze, looking down at the front of his trunks, and shit, shit, shit, you didn’t even think, because the poor guy’s due to wrestle on live television in just a short time but is now, somewhat awkwardly, sporting what looks to be some pretty epic wood.

“Sorry,” you say ruefully, because you were just trying to make a point, not completely fuck up Austin’s night.

“No,” he replies. “My fault.” He smiles sheepishly. “But I think I better… take care of things before the match.”

“I don’t know,” you tell him. “I think you approaching him with…” you gesture at his crotch, “…all that happening might give TJP a pretty good scare.”

“Maybe so.” Austin laughs, blue eyes shining, and you suddenly realize that you don’t know him at all. And maybe, just maybe, that you’ve never given him enough of chance. You know you can be impatient, rash to judge people, and you’ve got a bad feeling you may have ended up jumping to some very wrong conclusions about exactly what kind of guy Austin is.

And you are, after all, a problem solver by trade. Hell, it’s practically your job description, and this right here, in Austin’s trunks? This is a problem that needs solving.

So you grab his hand firmly, saying, “Come with me,” as you lead him off down a narrow side hallway that seems to go nowhere. There’s more crates stacked up in the small space, and you take hold of Austin’s shoulders, guiding him behind one of the crates, pushing him backwards until his back is pressed up against the wall.

“Um…” he says, nervous, but not resisting you. “What… what are you doing?”

“Stop talking,” you say, and he nods, letting out a small, strangled whimper as you drop down onto your knees in front of him. You pull down his trunks, freeing his cock, which springs out hard. It’s not so long, but it’s thick, surprisingly so, and for a second you have to press your thighs together, imagining what it would feel like inside you.

But there’s no time for that now, so you reach out, taking it in hand, your fingers circling around the shaft, feeling the smooth weight of it. There’s a glistening drip of precome beaded at the tip, and you lean in closer, your tongue snaking out to delicately lick it up. “Fuck,” you hear Austin mutter, and you grin up at him slyly, parting your lips, taking just the head into your mouth and sucking on it gently.

And you’d really like to finesse this, make it last, but you know that’s not possible, so you close your lips around him, moving up and down, swirling your tongue around him every time you pull back, licking at the ridge at the base of the head, listening to him moan in response. He thrusts up into your mouth, and you grip his hips, holding him still enough that you can establish your own pace.

“I’m going to…” Austin grits out, warning you, and you only redouble your efforts, hungry for the taste of him, and he doesn’t disappoint, heat soon spurting out into your throat. You swallow greedily, sucking gently as he finally finishes, letting his spent cock fall from your mouth.

You stand up, wiping off your lips, looking at him. He’s leaning back against the wall, still panting, eyes wild, and you feel no small amount of satisfaction at how utterly undone he appears.

He lunges towards you, arm around your waist, other hand on the back of your neck, pulling you in for a kiss, but you hold yourself away, hesitating. “I’ve still got…” you say, meaning the remains of his come is in your mouth, thinking he won’t want to taste it.

But he surprises you, saying, “Yeah, don’t care,” as he drags you in forcefully, tongue sliding past your lips, kissing you so deeply and thoroughly you’re almost instantly weak with it, body slumping forward against his. He bends one leg enough that his thigh’s pressed up hard between your legs, and you instinctively start to grind down on it, the seam of your jeans getting your clit just right, and you moan.

He’s unfastening the button on your jeans, when you suddenly remember where you are and what you’re actually supposed to be doing. “Oh god,” you exclaim, holding up your wrist and showing him the time on your watch. “You’re going to miss your match if you don’t hurry.”

“Dammit,” Austin says, releasing you, pulling up his trunks, straightening himself up hurriedly. He pauses, looking at you. “What about you?”

You shrug briefly. “I’ll live,” you say, but to be truthful, you’re not sure you will, the yearning ache inside you so intense you’re not sure how you’re going to get through the rest of the show. But it is what it is, and you’ll deal.

“If you want to come see me later,” he says, with dirty, hopeful-looking smirk, “I’ll take good care of you.”

“Yeah?” you ask, playfully. “Will it be worth the wait?”

Austin’s face widens into a grin. “I’ll make sure of it.”

“It’s a date, then.” You wave at him, shooing him away. “Now go before we’re both in trouble.”

He laughs, rushing off, and when he’s gone, you wince to yourself, because you’re probably already behind enough on your schedule that you’re in deep shit.

But well, yeah, you think. So worth it.

You pick up the banana peel from where it’s lying discarded on the ground, and try to refocus, because it’s going to be a long night.

[bforbookslut]

ARC Review: The Prophetess by Desy Smith

This book was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This review edition is an ARC and may differ from the final edition.

I have given The Prophetess by Desy Smith a ☆ rating. It is Book 1 in The First Series series. It belongs to the New Adult Modern Fantasy genre with some Supernatural and Romance elements. Floebe Publishing publishes it. It was published August 2nd, 2017.

The blurb reads:

High up in the Heavens, righteousness faces off against the greatest dissenter of all time, and in the crossfire, an Angel loses his wings…

Fallen from Heaven and forced to live amongst the Humans, Ezekiel bares the tragic fate of a disgraced Angel. Having heard the rebellious Lucifer’s plan to rise up against the sanctuary of Heaven, Ezekiel remains silent; and for his inaction, he is exiled from the pearly gates and onto the unforgiving lands of the mortals. Two thousand years pass with a cold and hollow wind at his back, and for a moment, Ezekiel is resigned to his fate.

However, in the year 2016, the winds of fate begin to change, and redemption comes in the form of his brother, Gabriel, who bears great news. Ezekiel is given a chance to return to Heaven, but only once he has taken down Moloch, an evil Demon on the rise. If Ezekiel can stop Moloch from helping Lucifer return, he will be welcomed back into Heaven. However, there is more than just a Demon in his path, Ezekiel must uncover what else fate has in store for him, including a lovely, independent Prophetess, named Isabelle, and the endless possibility for joy and whimsy she offers. Can Ezekiel rise once more to the great destiny that awaits him? Or has he been amongst the fickle mortals far too long?

Disclaimer: This novel does contains a potty mouth female protagonist. If abrasive language offends you, this novel is not for you.

Add to Goodreads | Amazon

Verdict:

If I could sum The Prophetess up in one word: Awful. Full disclosure, I did not finish the book at Chapter 5, 28% in. I am incredibly upset with this book, the author and the publishing company. I got this on Netgalley and it was categorised Teens and YA. THIS IS NOT FUCKING YA. NOT. NOWHERE NEAR CLOSE. It’s New Adult. The MC is twenty-three and the Angel, god knows how old he is.

If there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s self-published authors pretending like they’re from a legit publishing company because you expect a certain level of readiness and polish. Okay, it’s an arc. It won’t be perfect but The Prophetess reads like a very bad, very raw first draft.

One, the flow of events is incredibly messy. Two, there is little to no character development and the strange characterisation and extreme propensity for violence from Ezekiel.. Three, everyone is so fucking gorgeous that oh, we’re all dazzled by your greatness. Four is the cringey and forced sexual undertones of basically everything that occurs between Ezekiel and Isabelle. Five, there is so much sexism hidden behind a supposedly feminist lead character. Six, WHO IS THE MAIN CHARACTER HERE? The blurb makes it seem as though it’s Ezekiel’s story. Seven, when the warning says potty mouth, they actually mean cussing twelve times within say, five pages. The sad part about all these negatives is that The Prophetess is actually very creative. It has a good plot and the worldbuilding isn’t bad. When they’re actually talking about the demons and the actual plot, it’s actually engaging. But there was no way I was putting up with any more of the nonsense to learn what happened in the end.

To break it down,

[may contain spoilers]

The Good:

1. The Prophetess has a solid plot. Only problem is it keeps detracting from it to focus on the romance between the two leads. It’s not an original plot but it was presented creatively and I particularly liked the worldbuilding behind it, especially about Angels and Lucifer and Ezekiel being cast from heaven.

The Bad:

1. There is so much sexism that I had to put this point first. Ezekiel claims that Isabelle is a ball-crushing badass feminist. But she isn’t. And neither is this book. Just because Isabelle is supposedly independent and takes none of your shit and cusses your ears bloody doesn’t mean she is a feminist or this book is feminist. It’s not. And that’s the most disgusting thing I’ve had to read.

1.1 Isabelle calls the women that Ezekiel have slept with and will hypothetically sleep with, “whores”. No feminist will ever call another woman a whore. And in the same breath, say that she deserves to wear whatever she wants, especially if she wants to look like a slut.

1.2 Speaking of which, Ezekiel doesn’t like that Isabelle wears revealing clothing and he calls her out for it, basically branding her a tramp. Ezekiel also expects to be obeyed as if Isabelle is a fucking dog and she should do whatever he asks. Not to mention, he also speaks of tying her up or spanking her as punishment. Now, there is no kink shaming. I’m down for a good BDSM romp. But, there was no set agreement or any indication that Ezekiel wanted to perform these kinds of acts on Isabelle nor any FUCKING CONSENT. So, it’s very creepy and disgusting on his part.

2. The writing didn’t flow well. One moment, Ezekiel is doing A and then, with no explanation whatsoever, he is suddenly doing B. Same goes for Isabelle and any other character mentioned in the book. In the parts that I did read, Ezekiel has an invitation/envelope of some sorts and that’s how the section ends. Suddenly, in the next section, he is all dressed up, and so is Isabelle and suddenly they’re heading to a Vampire party. There was no mention that they would go together or if they’d meet up somewhere, how to dress, what to do. It just. Happened.

3. Character development, progression and characterisation is zilch. I suppose the author wanted Ezekiel and Isabelle to be those cute bickering couples you know who will end up together because they’re so perfect for each other. Mission not accomplished. Half the time, their arguing and fighting just doesn’t make any sense. Ezekiel’s dislike towards Isabelle is not mentioned and Isabelle’s hostility towards him is because she doesn’t like anything to do with Angels. But is fine dealing with other supernatural creatures. Like, they just meet and they hate each other. The Enemies to friends/lovers trope is as common as they come but this is one instance where it didn’t work.

3.1 Also, I know nothing about Isabelle except that she is The Prophetess and apparently helps supernatural creatures, has a mom and a sister and likes to call Ezekiel fucktard is almost every sentence. Like hello please develop your character and make me care about her because idgaf about her whining and her problems.

3.2 Ezekiel is unnaturally violent which I don’t quite understand. Because Lucifer was supposed to be the violent one who killed all their fallen brothers and Ezekiel is the good guy. But there was just a lot of graphic punching and slicing Vampires in two and chopping their heads off that didn’t gel with that image. And it’s very, very confusing. Angel madness violence thing whatever Isabelle called it

4. Not to mention that EVERYONE and I mean, EVERY FUCKING ONE, in The Prophetess is so insanely gorgeous that they have paragraphs dedicated to their good looks (okay I’m exaggerating) but it’s just so cringey and unrealistic. Ezekiel literally has a WHOLE paragraph dedicated to describing how smoking hot his chocolate skin is, how sexy his blonde hair is, how ripped he is, you get my drift.

4.1 And Ezekiel cannot stop staring and ogling Isabelle. He stares at her all the time and keeps thinking about fucking her. Yuck.

5. I find it hard to believe that Isabelle and Ezekiel are supposed to be a thing because there is absolutely no sexual tension or chemistry between them. He pushes her up against walls and she grinds her knee into his dick what. It’s just not believable and it really ruins the flow of the story just to have these two have the hots for each other. Which they don’t.

6. The blurb made it seem as though Ezekiel were the main character. And this is Ezekiel’s struggles and shit. But Isabelle seems to be the driving force of the story, not Ezekiel even if the book opened that way. And again, the confusion because what is this book about? Is it about Ezekiel trying to find redemption and saving the world from the demon with the help of a prophetess who might be a potential romantic partner or is this about Ezekiel and Isabelle fucking?

7. The book came with a warning about the potty mouth female protagonist. Now, I’m all down for a potty mouth because who doesn’t? Literally, my blog is based on my love for cussing. But when you’re cussing 12 times in about 5 pages? Something’s definitely wrong. It was bothering me so much that I had to start counting them because I wanted to see how saturated with cuss words this book was. It was cussing for no reason. Just for the fun of saying asshole, turd, shit, fuck, fucktard you name it. Plus, fucktard is such an outdated cuss word, come on get with the times. I used to write like this. I got my ass chewed out for it because it’s just bad writing.

Conclusion:

I could name a lot more but I don’t want to dwell on it any more. The Prophetess is a badly written first draft that needs to go through more editors and proof readers before it is ready for the market. It had a lot of potential that went to waste. I hope that this would be different in the final edition because I received a copy of this ARC late and was only able to review it now. But judging by the lack of reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, I don’t know how far this book will reach.

[geektified]

New Post has been published on http://www.geektified.com/2017/05/16/the-raw-expose-the-welcome-to-the-braun-strowman-im-not-finished-with-you-yet-postponement-tour-edition-5-15-2017/

The Raw Exposé: The Welcome to the Braun Strowman "I'm Not Finished With You Yet" Postponement Tour Edition (5-15-2017)

By: Keila Cash

Hello everyone and welcome to another installment of The Raw Exposé. Tonight’s episode of Monday Night Raw emanated from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The two-week European Tour is in the books which mean only one thing: The Raw crew is bound to be tired and lethargic after such a grueling trip overseas. With the creative team in a rush to revise their plans for Brock Lesnar heading into the summer, did the talent rise to the occasion or did they wilt under the pressure? The answer to that question can be found throughout this blog. Without further ado, let’s dissect tonight’s episode of Raw in no particular order.

  Due to Braun Strowman’s elbow injury, Kurt Angle announced that there would be a Fatal 5-Way Extreme Rules match at the eponymous PPV featuring Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, Finn Bálor, Bray Wyatt, and Roman Reigns with the winner going on to face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship. Angle wisely omitted the July PPV by name because it absolutely sucks.

  Reigns, Bálor, Joe, Wyatt, and Rollins had the obligatory spiel about being the guy to face Lesnar for the Universal Title until Rollins charged after Joe which led to a full-on melee.

  Rollins targeted Joe’s knee by yanking it between the ropes while Wyatt attacked Bálor which caused Reigns to get involved. Chaos ensued as Reigns nailed Wyatt with a Superman Punch which allowed Bálor to double dropkick Rollins and Wyatt into the barricade before laying them out with a flip dive on the outside.

  Balor capped things off by hitting the Slingblade on Reigns as the opening segment came to an end.

  This was a fine way to start the show. The segment could’ve ended with Angle’s announcement, but the other wrestlers had to air their grievances in order to stretch out the opener. The jibber jabber was pointless, but it set up Wyatt vs. Rollins and Balor vs. Reigns for later tonight. Predictability aside, the in-ring action should be very good if the wrestlers are given enough time to shine.

  Jeff Hardy defeated Sheamus with the Swanton Bomb in a solid match. It was hard hitting and physical throughout, but the closing sequence was a little messy as Sheamus nailed Matt Hardy with two sloppy Brogue Kicks while Hardy was standing on the ring apron. Outside of that, the Twist of Fate followed by Jeff’s finisher ended things on a high note.

  Alicia Fox evened her feud with Sasha Banks when Fox pinned Banks with the Scissors Kick. Fox and Banks are embroiled in a battle of 50/50 booking as they are tied at 1-1. For fear of burning through this feud too quickly, Fox and Banks need to explain why they are beefing with each other. Then again, the hit or miss scripts the female performers have to recite is sub par at best which puts the creative team in a damned if you, damned if you don’t situation. Allowing both ladies to speak in their own voice would be helpful, but the odds of that happening is highly unlikely. A girl can dream, though.

  In a bizarre finish, Dean Ambrose retained the Intercontinental Championship by getting himself disqualified when he kicked The Miz in the nether regions in plain view of the referee. The ref DQ’d Ambrose which probably is building up to a rematch for the IC Title at Extreme Rules in three weeks.

  It should be noted that Ambrose grabbed Miz’s hand while the latter was trying to deliver a low blow of his own while Maryse distracted the referee. The Lunatic Fringe was simply paying it forward, but he got caught for his efforts.

  Prior to the DQ finish, Ambrose and Miz had a very good match that featured fast paced action throughout. Ambrose must’ve had a double shot of espresso because he was extra energized tonight.

  The crowd was hot from start to finish which pushed the match over the top. The fans were split down the middle which is little surprising, but Miz has been such an awesome (no pun intended) heel over the past year that it’s not completely shocking that a portion of hardcore fans cheer him unabashedly. He’s come a long way from being Hollywood A-Lister with no bite to becoming one of the best pure heels in the wrestling business.

  Alexa Bliss taught Bayley a thing or two about being extreme when she whacked the Hugger Extraordinaire in the back with a Kendo Stick. It was a sick shot and Bayley did a great job selling her back on the floor while Bliss posed in the ring with the Raw Women’s Championship.

  The verbal exchange leading up to the physical confrontation was fine, but Bliss continues to blow Bayley out of the water when it comes to her mic work. Bayley is a lovable character, but her saccharine and uneven promos do more harm than good when it comes to garnering fan support. Her in-ring work will smooth things over, but she has to become a better talker in order to stand out in the Women’s Division.

  Neville and TJP defeated Austin Aries and Jack Gallagher when TJP nailed Gallagher with the Detonation Kick for the win. The match was fine, but it was marred by the fans being distracted by something in the arena which led to a chorus of boos followed by a CM Punk and Justin Bieber chant. Neville being visibly pissed made things even worse. The Cruiserweight Division is already fighting behind the 8-Ball. Having the fans turn on the action from the opening bell is rubbing salt in an already open and battered wound. Here’s hoping things get better soon because this match was tough to watch as a fan.

  Bayley will face Alexa Bliss in a Kendo Stick on a Pole Match for the Raw Women’s Championship at Extreme Rules. Angle was extra giddy after Bayley told him she was ready to live up to the PPV’s namesake. The stipulation is fine, but I had an instant flashback to the horrid Paddle on a Pole Matches during the Divas Era. A No DQ or No Holds Barred Match would’ve sufficed instead of putting the women in a generic match that brings back bad memories from a recently bygone period in WWE history.

  Roman Reigns vs. Finn Bálor II was better than the original as they had a really good match that was filled with a balanced dose of physicality and grit. Reigns did a great job selling his shoulder while Bálor went on the attack.

  Reigns targeted Bálor’s ribs and shoulder which evened things up. Bálor had the match in control when he laid out Reigns with the Slingblade followed by a running dropkick in the corner.

  Bálor went up to the top rope to deliver the Coup De Grace, but his injured ribs made the climb slower than usual. This allowed Reigns to knock Balor off the top rope to set up the Spear for the win.

  Bálor lost nothing by losing while Reigns picked up a key victory heading into Extreme Rules. From a pure promotional standpoint, Bálor winning the match in order to promote his WWE 24 Special on the network after Raw would’ve made more sense but the booking team had other plans. Yes, I am closet PR Maven at heart.

  Goldust just went rogue! So much for The Golden Truth being on the same page.

  Big Cass defeated Titus O’Neil with a big boot in a quick match. The fact that Cass beat O’Neil while the former Mega Dad of the Year was wearing a suit made the win that much sweeter.

  After the match was over, Enzo was busy taking a selfie as Apollo Crews tried to shake his hand. Enzo kept ignoring him which caused Crews to nail him with an enzuigiri. I wouldn’t call this a heelish act because Enzo was acting like an asshole, but Crews developing a mean streak is much better than smiling his way through life.

  Bray Wyatt vs. Seth Rollins ended via Disqualification when Samoa Joe attacked Rollins at ringside before dropping him with an Uranage Slam in the ring. Wyatt joined in on the beat down before turning the tables on Joe by hitting him with Sister Abigail from out of nowhere. Rollins suffered the same fate as Raw went off the air with Bray Wyatt telling the audience to “Follow The Buzzards.”

  Before the DQ finish, Wyatt and Rollins had a solid match but it never got past a certain level. The match went a bit long and Joe’s interference wasn’t surprising due to what happened during the opening segment. The crowd was a little flat as well because the action was pretty paint-by-the-numbers.

  Despite those shortcomings, the crowd popped for Wyatt being his own man which is a positive considering his lackluster pair of matches against Randy Orton last month which caused the fans to boo him for all the wrong reasons during the House of Horrors match at Payback a few weeks ago. If Wyatt is going to face Lesnar for the Universal Championship, he has to be built up like a legit threat who isn’t crippled by his supernatural tendencies. History tells us that said tendencies will play into his eventual downfall. It’s sad but true.

  Overall, I thought tonight’s episode of Raw was solid. The Newark crowd was hot outside of them completely shitting on the Cruiserweight Tag Team Match during the second hour of the show. The in-ring action ranged from solid to good which was a nice surprise because the first show after the European Tour has been historically uneventful. Fortunately, the wrestlers rose to the occasion which made the show feel livelier than usual.

  The creative team have a clear course heading into Extreme Rules as they booked the Fatal 5-Way Extreme Rules match featuring Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, Bray Wyatt, and Roman Reigns with the winner going on to face Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship. Braun Strowman will be sorely missed, but this is the perfect opportunity for someone fresh to step up to the plate and prove that he is worthy of being in the main event spot. The outcome is not clear cut which adds an element of surprise heading into the PPV.

  The Extreme Rules card is coming together nicely, but WWE has to hype this thing to the hilt because the go-home show for the PPV takes place on Memorial Day which tends to be a ratings killer. There is no John Cena to pop the number this year. The next couple of weeks is critical because the deck has been reshuffled due to Strowman’s injury. Let’s hope the creative team takes care of business because it’s been rough sailing for the red brand since the Superstar Shakeup last month. Fingers crossed!

  On that note, this wraps up another edition of The Raw Exposé. I hope you enjoyed it and I will back tomorrow night with a brand new installment of The SmackDown Files. See you later, boys and girls!

[chpkns]

BEST ALBUMS 2018

Ok here we go again for 2018, shall we?

Hon. Mentions: Negro Swan - Blood Orange; Singularity - Jon Hopkins; Elsewhere - Ryan Hemsworth; Scorpion - Drake; Diplomatic Ties - The Diplomats; Some Rap Songs - Earl Sweatshirt; FM! - Vince Staples; Rally Cry - Arkells; I’m All Ears - Let’s Eat Grandma; Be The Cowboy - Mitski; Kamikaze - Eminem; Ye - Kanye West; KIDS SEE GHOSTS - Kanye West and Kid Cudi; Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino - Arctic Monkeys; Black Panther: The Album - Kendrick Lamar, et al; KOD - J. Cole; Culture II - Migos; Hive Mind - The Internet; God’s Favorite Customer - Father John Misty; Blood - Rhye; Both Ways - Donovan Woods; Songs of the Plains - Colter Wall

10) Swimming - Mac Miller

This one was tough. Malcolm James McCormick’s fifth studio album was barely out three months before he left us. It’s hard to evaluate Swimming��in isolation of Miller’s untimely death at age 26. Especially since, in my mind, the album represents something of a turning point for the former frat rapper. Recorded in the wake of Miller’s high profile breakup with Ariana Grande and in the midst of public struggles with addiction, Swimming is full of heartache and soul bearing self-reflection. Sonically, Mac’s airy raps and crooning vocals float over jazzy beats and orchestral accompaniments, with help from Thundercat and Dev Hynes. There’s room for fun as well amid the melancholy - the more upbeat Ladders and What’s the Use? are sure enough to keep a dance floor moving. The worst thing about Swimming is really how good it is, and how it felt like Mac Miller was on the cusp on something great we’ll now never see. 

Highlights: Self Care, What’s The Use?, 2009, Ladders

9) QUARTERTHING - Joey Purp

Chance the Rapper’s Savemoney compatriot Joey Purp is like a breath of fresh air. QUARTERTHING’s 14 tracks, most clocking in at under 3 minutes, come fast and furious like Purp’s (mostly) un-autotuned flow. Joey’s full throated, almost Meek-Mill-esque, delivery gives the album a mixtape-like authenticity - notwithstanding the varied and expert production from the likes of RZA, Knox Fortune and frequent Chance collaborator Nate Fox. The opening 24k Gold/Sanctified, and Hallelujah just two tracks later, feel downright celebratory pairing Purp’s flow behind a blaring big band sound. Others, like Look At My Wrist and Paint Thinner, are Chicago Drill and house inspired, feeling like they’d be right at home in a sweaty club basement. Lyrically, Purp is a classic hip-hop storyteller and street documentarian, drawing from experiences in a former life selling drugs and the violence of his home city. This impressive studio album debut is more than enough to solidify Joey Purp’s place among an exciting new generation of Chicago rappers.

Highlights: 24k Gold/Sanctified (ft. Ravyn Lenae & Jack Red), Godbody (ft. RZA) [Pt. 2], Hallelujah, Look At My Wrist (ft. Cdot Honcho), Karl Malone

8) Golden Hour - Kacey Musgraves

Kacey Musgraves is clearly in the pantheon of artists that can’t release an album without it making this list (I rated Pageant Material #8 in 2015 and Same Trailer, Different Park #9 in 2013... both criminally underrated in retrospect). Musgraves continued to be a revelation with her third album. There was a great Ezra Koenig quote last year, where he talked about seeing Musgraves’ concert and being inspired by the clarity of her music: “from the first verse, you knew who was singing, who they were singing to, what kind of situation they were in”. On Golden Hour, she maintains that clarity, stretching a little more outside the traditional country sound into pop and disco-inspired melodies. I do miss the dry humour and rebellious spirit of the previous two Musgraves outings, I’ll admit. You won’t find any overt weed references here, but Kacey finds plenty of ways to remind us how few fucks she gives about the Nashville country establishment. Golden Hour also shows off some of Musgraves’ strongest songwriting to date - the sprawling Space Cowboy stands out as one of the best singles of the year in any genre. I’m probably in the minority in thinking Golden Hour is not my favourite Kacey Musgraves album, but it’s still one of my favourite albums of 2018.

Highlights: Slow Burn, Space Cowboy, High Horse, Love is a Wild Thing

7) Lush - Snail Mail

It’s about to become clear that there is a “women in indie rock” movement happening on this year’s list. The debut album from 18 year old singer-songwriter Lindsey Jordan is one of the most aptly titled records of 2018. Lush’s indie rock soundscapes are just that. Loud, full and richly textured. Jordan’s crystal clear vocals soar and float above her ringing guitar chords and riffs. The songwriting is perhaps what you’d expect from an 18 year old, full of heartbreak, confusion and teen angst. She does it well though. As the first chorus builds on Heat Wave, Jordan’s voice builds: “And I hope whoever it is Holds their breath around you, 'Cause I know I did”. The album’s standout track for me is Full Control which crescendos to a refrain of: “I'm in full control, I'm not lost, Even when it's love, Even when it's not.” At the same time, Lush exudes a maturity and a nostalgia that hearkens back to Snail Mail’s spiritual predecessors like Cat Power or Fiona Apple. Snail Mail was one of many reasons that 2018 gave me hope that there’s a future for indie rock and “guitar music” generally. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what’s next.

Highlights: Pristine, Full Control, Deep Sea, Heat Wave

6) boygenius EP - boygenius

The only thing that ever held me back from including boygenius on this list was my long held view that “an EP is not an album”. Well, since Kanye decided that 7 songs can be an “album” why not 6? Any album that has 6 songs as good as the 6 on boygenius EP would make this list! boygenius is the indie “supergroup” made up of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and the holder of last year’s #3 album on this list, Julien Baker - all accomplished solo acts in their own right. Predictably, the whole is something greater than the sum of its parts. boygenius EP’s six songs are a tour de force amalgam of indie, country and folk (owing to the band’s cross-genre Nashville and Viriginia roots) full of raw emotion and grit. Dacus, Bridgers and Baker seem made to perform, and sing, together. The harmonies on this record make boygenius sound like an indie rock iteration of Destiny’s Child or an edgier, less twangy version of the Dixie Chicks. The songs do not hold back, with high highs and low lows. On Me & My Dog, the soaring chorus evokes an escapist dream: “I wish I was on a spaceship, Just me and my dog and an impossible view”. The emotional highpoint of the record might be Baker and Bridgers’ chorus on Salt in the Wound apexing with: “I’m gnashing my teeth, Like a child of Cain, If this is a prison I’m willing to buy my own chain”. I can’t stop watching live videos of these three - they seem so at home onstage together. As excited as I’d be to see boygenius become more than a side project, I’m equally excited to see what’s next for Bridgers, Dacus and Baker on their own.

Highlights: Me & My Dog, Stay Down, Salt In the Wound, Ketchum ID

5) DAYTONA - Pusha T

YUGH! Amid Kanye’s unhinged tweets, messy, disorganized projects, and Oval Office visits, DAYTONA, the 7 track album he entirely produced for G.O.O.D. Music veteran Pusha T, was one thing that gave us hope that Kanye hadn’t completely lost his touch (or his mind) in 2018. DAYTONA showcases both producer Kanye and King Push at the absolute peak of their talents. It’s amazing, in this era of Xanax-fuelled mumblerap, to think how long we’ve been listening to Kanye and Push do their thing. Lord Willin’ introduced the world to Pusha T in 2002 (alongside his brother Malice, as he then was, as the iconic rap duo Clipse). The College Dropout came out two years later. I still remember buying the CDs and wearing out my discman with both of them. It’s easy to forget that Kanye and Terrence “King Push” Thornton are both 41 years old! There’s something refreshing about two guys in their forties still being able to make a banging rap record about selling drugs and buying expensive shit. Push said DAYTONA was made “for my family...high taste level, luxury, drug raps fans.”  Those fans are well served by DAYTONA. After the beat comes in on album opener If You Know You Know, Push sounds like he’s speaking directly to his day one fans, raising a styrofoam cup to: “This thing of ours, oh, this thing of ours”. The album exudes the bravado of an MC on top of his game confident in the knowledge that he’s spitting bars on a classic. And we can’t forget the incendiary Infrared, the song that touched off a vicious beef between Pusha T and rap’s biggest star, Drake, ending after Push revealed in a diss track that Drake was hiding his son from the world. Almost 20 years on, Pusha T is still ready to go war, still “clickin’ like Golden State” and still wearing the crown as King Push. Long may he reign.

Highlights: If You Know You Know, The Games We Play, Hard Piano (ft. Rick Ross), Infrared

4) Honey - Robyn

I found myself slightly disappointed in Honey at first, largely because my expectations for Robyn’s first album in eight years were based on the high energy electro-pop brilliance of 2010′s Body Talk. What I should have realized is that, if Robyn were going to make another Body Talk, she wouldn’t have kept us waiting this long. Honey is not Body Talk - you won’t find another Call Your Girlfriend or Dancing on My Own among its nine silky smooth tracks. But it is no less brilliant. If I can forget that Beach2k20 exists for a second, it feels pretty darn close to a perfect album. Honey betrays a lighter touch for Robyn, perhaps more in tune with the sound of the moment. A little more euro house and disco tinged, Honey furthers the Swedish songstress’s long evolution away from the pop idol of her late 90′s past. Honey still embodies Robyn’s signature juxtaposition of electronic dance rhythms alongside themes of sadness, loneliness and heartbreak. And songs like Honey and Missing U can still light up any dancefloor. The highlight for me is the slow-building Send to Robin Immediately, which just swells over its Lil Louis sample as Robyn urges the listener into action: “If you got something to say, say it right away. If you got something to do, do what's right for you. If you got somebody to love, give that love today. Know you got nothing to lose, there's no time to waste”. In between albums, and while writing Honey, Robyn lived through the death of a longtime collaborator and a breakup and reunion with a romantic partner. The emotional toll of these experiences seem to shine through. Robyn told the BBC’s Annie Mac earlier this year: “When I wrote this album I think I was quite tired of myself writing sad love songs, but I did anyway and looking back on that now, I think it's OK for things to be sad. Combining it with something that's bright and strong and powerful is a way of finding your way out of the sadness.” 

Highlights: Missing U, Human Being (ft. Zhala), Send to Robin Immediately, Honey

3) Clean - Soccer Mommy

Clean, the impressive debut album from 20 year old Nashville singer-songwriter Sophie Allison, was the first album I heard this year that I 100% knew would be on this list. By the time Your Dog hits at the third track, I was completely enthralled. That song is so goddamn rock and roll with Allison sparing no mercy for the subject shitty boyfriend of the opening verse: “I don't wanna be your fucking dog, That you drag around, A collar on my neck tied to a pole, Leave me in the freezing cold”. Elsewhere, on Still Clean, Allison plays with gruesome animalistic imagery singing of an ex-lover picking her “out your bloody teeth”. There is a warmer side to Clean as well. Scorpio Rising, with it’s “bubbly and sweet like Coca-Cola” softness and lyrics about meeting up after dark and missed calls from your mother definitely remind you that Allison is a self-professed devotee of Taylor Swift’s early work (which should give you another idea of why I love this album). Speaking of T-Swift, the rollicking Last Girl almost mirrors You Belong With Me in describing the crushing insecurity of comparing oneself to a new partner’s ex, somehow pulling off lyrics like “I want to be like your last girl, She's the sun in your cold world and, I am just a dying flower, I don't hold the summer in my eyes” as if that were a totally normal thing to say. Beneath the upbeat riff of Cool, where Allison idolizes the cool girl “with a heart of coal, She’ll break you down and eat you whole” is the understanding that being that person won’t bring her the happiness she seeks. Acceptance of one’s emotions and insecurities is the core theme of Clean - that “You gon’ be like that” (as Allison put it to the Fader) and you’ll be happier once you accept you for you. In many ways, Clean evokes a similar vibe to the Snail Mail and boygenius entries further up this year’s list, as a scrappy “girl with a guitar” indie record and a tongue-in-cheek stage name. That sense of charming honesty is what, I think, makes Clean stand above the other entries on this list.

Highlights: Cool, Your Dog, Last Girl, Scorpio Rising

2) Lamp Lit Prose - Dirty Projectors

The first of our top two is another repeat offender on this list (a previous incarnation of the Projectors’ Swing Lo Magellan had #7 back in 2012 and last year’s eponymous Dirty Projectors was my 2017 #8). I loved every minute of Lamp Lit Prose - it’s almost a 1B for me on this list and was pencilled in at 1 for a time in the drafting process. This album has everything that was good about last year’s DPs record but is, ultimately, tighter, more fun, less weird and less sad. Dave Longstreth appears to have moved on (at least musically) from the emotions he was working through on Dirty Projectors, which was essentially an extended meditation on the breakup of his relationship with Amber Coffman and the band’s upheaval. With Lamp Lit Prose, his “new look” Dirty Projectors (with help from friends like Syd, Rostam and HAIM) have put together something a little more traditional (by Dirty Projectors standards) and a lot more listenable. Longstreth told Exclaim that this album, compared its morose predecessor, “is really about feeling hope again, finding the things that give us hope, that make us feel optimistic and joyful.” Lamp Lit Prose falls somewhere between the twangly, jam band atmosphere of the Projector’s Swing Lo Magellan and Bitte Orca heyday and the more experimental, electronic-infused vibe of the Dirty Projectors released 18 months prior. Longstreth’s guitar riffs are again front and centre, but the voice modulation and distorted electronic sounds are still there, albeit in a more subtle way. Four part harmonies bounce over the jazzy melodies and hopeful lyrics. Where he was mourning a lost love on the last record, here we see Longstreth “in love for the first time ever” on I Found It In U (a salvaged beat from his work on Solange’s last album). On Break Thru, the un-named romantic subject is held up as “an epiphany” with comparisons in quick succession to Archimedes, Fellini and Julian Casablancas. The horn-backed chorus on What Is The Time is the high point of the record for me - the kind of song that makes you want to raise your voice and join in on the hook. All in all, it’s just great to hear this band making fun music again. Lamp Lit Prose is upbeat, creative and simply a joy to listen to. I absolutely loved this album... but just not quite enough to edge out our number 1.

Highlights: Break-Thru, That’s a Lifestyle, I Found It In U, What Is The Time

1) ASTROWORLD - Travis Scott

IT’S LIT!!! I would have never predicted that a Travis Scott album would land here at number 1, but here we are. And I feel good about it. ASTROWORLD dominated my listening from its mid-summer release onward and, with each spin, I became increasingly convinced of its greatness. Travis is an artist that I’ve long found perplexing. Insanely popular among his legions of young fans, he embodies so much of the “new rap” ethos, the first genre of music where I’ve started to feel like I might be ‘too old’ to enjoy it. It was clear on his prior outings, Rodeo and Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, that the talent and creativity was there, but the overall product always seemed messy, disorganized, unpolished. With ASTROWORLD, Scott finally has made his Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The album is named for a former Six Flags theme park in Scott’s hometown of Houston that was torn down a decade ago and still sits vacant. Previewing the title of the album, Scott told GQ last year: "They tore down AstroWorld to build more apartment space. That's what it's going to sound like, like taking an amusement park away from kids. We want it back. We want the building back. That's why I'm doing it. It took the fun out of the city." True to his word, the album’s 17 tracks are tied together by an overarching creepy, grimy sound. Listening to ASTROWORLD feels like walking through an abandoned theme park. Even more impressive is how Travis, as curator of the album’s varied guest list, bends the star studded guest appearances to his will, fitting them in perfectly to his dank sonic menagerie. The likes of Frank Ocean, the Weeknd, Swae Lee, Tame Impala and James Blake don’t overpower Scott’s vision but blend into the scenery, their talents employed perfectly by Travis in the role of ringmaster. Newcomers get some shine too, like Scott’s Cactus Jack labelmate Sheck Wes who gets a guest verse on NO BYSTANDERS and a shoutout to his ubiquitous single from Travis on 5% TINT: “We did some things out on the ways that we can't speak, All I know it was "Mo Bamba" on repeat”. And then, there’s SICKO MODE. Why is it that the best Drake song each year invariably comes from someone else’s album, even in a year where Drizzy himself releases a double album? The ASTROWORLD track list, at least initially, left out the featured artists, so hearing Drake’s voice over the opening notes of the album’s third track was the first time most listeners had any indication that the 6ixgod himself would be making an appearance. What a wonderful surprise it turns out to be. SICKO MODE, the album’s best track, feels like three or four different songs as the beat changes form and Travis and Drake pass the mic back and forth. The song’s Tay Keith produced final act (the “out like a light” part) is for my money the best two minutes of hip hop music made in 2018. ASTROWORLD succeeds on its grandeur, vision and consistency. Travis Scott set out to build something big and from the moment the bass kicks in on STARGAZING through to the mellow, string backed denouement of COFFEE BEAN, he succeeds at every turn. ASTROWORLD was 2018′s biggest, most creative, most sonically consistent and most fun album in hip-hop. In my estimation, it’s the best album of the year.

Highlights: STARGAZING, CAROUSEL (ft. Frank Ocean), SICKO MODE (ft. Drake, Swae Lee and Big Hawk), WAKE UP (ft. The Weeknd), CAN’T SAY (ft. Don Toliver)

That’s all folks. Thanks for reading and see ya in 2019.

[thecelestialjukebox]

Best of 2017: 10-1

10. Paramore - Hard Times: 

“Hard Times,” first and foremost, is an expertly crafted retro pop song just on virtue of sonics— those marimbas! Those guitar stabs! That awkward vocoder bit! Yet it also captures something deep about the new wave material it’s cribbing from, something that many artists who’ve decided to do Talking Heads cosplay miss. On “Hard Times,” Hayley Williams, who has long been one of the best songwriters in the Alt-rock world, nails the profound sadness and fear of the best New Wave. But “Hard Times” is not just notable for how it imitates the past but in how it boldly stabs towards new sonic ground, in how it shows a Paramore that’s willing to evolve into something unrecognizable from the band that put out “Misery Business.”

9. Mount Eerie - Soria Moria:

 A Crow Looked At Me is a tragedy not just because of the real life calamity that it documents but because of the thing it realizes about the nature of sorrow. A Crow Looked At Me is about the death and mourning of Geneveive Castree, yes, but it’s also about how memory betrays us, gives us nothing but shards of what once was. “Soria Moria” is where Phil Elverum explores this theme most fully, weaving together his entire life and love into a meditation on the impossible places that grief and memory drive us towards, all held together by the twin images of a mythic Norwegian castle and “Slow pulsing red tower lights/Across a distance, refuge in the dust.”

8. Marika Hackman - Time’s Been Reckless:

 There are more genius hooks crammed into the four minutes of “Time’s Been Reckless” than most albums have in their entire running times. What more do you want from a power pop song? What greater joy is there than a pop song as expertly crafted as this?

7. The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die - Marine Tigers: 

“Marine Tigers” is a heavy song— not just in its 4th-wave emo aesthetics and massive guitar riffs or its seven minute length, but in the density of its lyrics, which weave together fragments of the immigrant experience both political and personal into a meditation on what it means to be foreign. Yet any song this heavy needs something deeply vulnerable and open in it to survive— otherwise, it’s just dull— and “Marine Tigers” finds that moment in its midsection, as the eerie sustained guitar and synth lines fall away for riffs more delicate and the snare drops out entirely and the thing we’re left with it is just the simple declaration of defiant existence, repeated over and over again: “We’re here/I told you so.”  

6. Vince Staples - Big Fish:

 Vince Staples’ Big Fish Theory is one of those obvious masterpieces of an album, an album that commits so deeply to its aesthetic, equal parts submerged and metallic, that it can use its specificity to make universally powerful moments. “Big Fish,” the album’s pseudo-title track, is the most compelling moment on an album that’s full of them— it’s the easiest demonstration of Vince Staples’ appeal as a rapper who can move between intensity and levity. Just take the opening of the second verse:

“It's funny I was going crazy not too long ago

Women problems every morning like the Maury show

Swimming upstream while I'm tryna keep my bread

From the sharks make me wanna put the hammer to my head

At the park politickin' with the kids

Tryna get em on a straight path, got the lames mad

Know they hate to see me make cash, got the space dash

In the foreign with the GPS addressed to your mama house”

Vince delivers these lines with his characteristic flow, an almost mechanical method that lends his punchlines, like the literal “your mom” joke that ends this passage, a certain ambiguity. His best material is unnerving in that respect, in how you can’t ever tell fully how serious he is about any proposition, but it’s also thrilling.

5. St. Vincent - Hang On Me / Slow Disco:

 “Hang On Me” and “Slow Disco” are two equal and opposite forces, beginning and ending MASSEDUCTION with a desperate, pleading cry for companionship and an equally desperate act of abandonment. Both songs are bare, at least by St. Vincent’s typically maximalist standards, pairing Annie Clark’s vocal performances with just simple strings-and-synth arrangements that stick to slow, elegiac riffs. And in the open space left on these tracks, she delivers the two greatest vocal performances of her career, aching and raw in ways she never has been before.

4. Lil Uzi Vert - XO TOUR Llif3: 

On paper, it’s easy to dismiss “XO TOUR LLif3” as just another pop-trap novelty song, a faux-edgy earworm of a hook about dead friends with no song supporting it. After all, Lil Uzi Vert dropped it on SoundCloud unceremoniously last February on the short stopgap mixtape “Luv is Rage 1.5”, and only gave it a commercial release after the song became inescapably popular on that platform. Yet as soon Uzi’s voice starts to croak over TM88’s cyber-goth beat, it’s clear why “XO TOUR LLif3” is special. Cloaked in layers of autotune that nevertheless serve to accentuate the raw human emotion of his performance, the Philadelphia rapper slurs his lines together, starting and stopping and fragmenting himself towards incomprehensibility. It’s strange to see “XO TOUR LLif3” as some anthem, a song of the summer, when in itself it is not just personal but an invocation of the sheer loneliness and untranslatability of feeling. The line that everyone focuses on here is “all my friends are dead, push me to the edge,” which admittedly is one hell of a unique hook, but it’s in the song’s second verse (roughly speaking) that the song reveals its heart, a swirling mess of megalomania and fear: “I cannot die because this my universe.���

3. Lorde - The Louvre: 

The first part of “The Louvre” is already among the best work on Lorde’s messy, wonderful Melodrama. Lorde expertly captures the uncertainty and passion of a young romance in the song’s lyrics, which shift constantly from long, languid bits of poetry like “Well, summer slipped us underneath her tongue/Our days and nights are perfumed with obsession” to casual, conversational lines like “They’ll hang us in the Louvre/Down the back, but who cares—still the Louvre.” The beat, produced by Flume and Malay (who also contributed to many of the best bits of Frank Ocean’s Blonde) also contributes to this feeling of ambiguity, rising and falling and rising again from simple guitar strums to the burbling mass of synths that Lorde sings the song’s final chorus over, all wistful passion. Yet the best part of “The Louvre” is in the back half, after all that is over. The song’s extended, wordless outro, anchored by a repeated guitar and synth figure, is some of the most evocative sonic storytelling of the year, an open question of a piece that hints of sun-drenched memories.

2. Japanese Breakfast - The Body Is A Blade:

 “The Body Is A Blade” is a song about grief but it is not quite a sad song— instead, it feels like every other emotion but sadness is here, from a kind of wistful joy to defeat to anger finally all the way to acceptance. These feelings flow through every part of the song, from the guitars that hold the track down, slowly moving across its landscape with a deliberate sort of beauty, to the synth arpeggios that float in, unbound to the material world, in the song’s second half. In between these interlinked, kaleidoscopic parts a whole world of trauma and memory lies, brought out by Michelle Zauner’s vocal performance. Even as all these things move around her, she is steady, a force of clarity in an ambiguous and beautiful sonic world. Her lyrics, focused around the idea of survival in grief, do the same, returning again and again to the image of the body cutting through the days for the sake of staying alive.

1. Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut To The Feeling:

 Pop music is both very easy and very hard to explain. The easy part is identifying all the little moving parts that work— the surf guitar in “Toxic,” for example, or the rolling drum beat on “Maps.” The hard part is in explaining how each of those functional elements, the load-bearers of a song, come together into something more. It’s easier in other genres— you can point to the virtuosity of a metal guitarist or an uber-technical rapper as the point where a song achieves greatness, or see the deeper meaning in an expertly crafted folk song or thoughtful piece of R&B— but pop is supposed to be disposable, which isn’t a bad thing, really, but makes finding its critical value more difficult.

“Cut To The Feeling” makes the hard part easy. “Cut To The Feeling” is not quite the best pop song of all time but is certainly the most pop pop song of all time, a throwaway (it’s a B-side to Emotion’s B-sides, consigned to a fourth-rate French animated movie) that takes its status as a throwaway as not a write-off but a mission statement. It’s supposedly a love song, just as all of CRJ’s output has been, but it’s really a song about what pop music does to you, how these little confections of synths and vocal lines develop emergent properties and actually make you feel things. “Cut To The Feeling” knows that it isn’t real, that pop music is inherently an exercise in abstractions and constructed images, but it doesn’t really care. Somewhere in the song’s build, as chugging rhythm guitar gives way to those massive synth chords, the point of the difference between the feeling itself and the shortcut the music provides is lost. “Cut To The Feeling” sounds like what it is: an ode to the power of pop music to become something ineffably more even within its limitations.

[universeinform-blog]

Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Trapped’ among several options this week

New Post has been published on https://universeinform.com/2017/03/20/beauty-and-the-beast-trapped-among-several-options-this-week/

Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Trapped’ among several options this week

A spate of releases has left film buffs with several options this week.

Vikramaditya Motwane’s Trapped, starring Rajkummar Rao, is a first rate albeit loopholed survival thriller, says India These days. Motwane captures a whole panoply of feelings on Rao’s face—from irritation to anger to helplessness to worry. There are many close-u.S.and the actor nails nearly they all. Except the by and large taut tale, the movie is based heavily on its male lead and Rao does a fabulous activity.

The Indian Explicit isn’t as inspired, calling the movie choppy. There are not sufficient in reality frightening heart-in-mouth moments. Rao’s despair stays mostly on the floor whilst you need to peer more of the soul. Given Motwane’s abilities at creating emotions, and Rao’s capability to channel them, Trapped doesn’t take us as a long way over the brink it may, or must have.

Abbas-Mustan’s romantic mystery System, starring Mustafa Burmawala and Kiara Advani, is pretty clearly the worst movie you’ll see in a long time, says Bollywood Life. Apart from more than one helping actors, the film is a messy affair with lame subplots, amateur performances, and cringe-worthy dialogues. The lack of common sense doesn’t help.

Mantra, starring Rajat Kapoor and Kalki Koechlin and directed via Nicholas Kharkongor, efficaciously seeks to record the crucial time of India’s financial liberalization and the long-drawn outcomes of the same that began in 1991, says Hindustan Instances. There are nods to crimson-tapes in the enterprise, to the minister-businessman nexus, and the upward push of the extreme right wing. In that, Mantra ticks all the packing containers and touches upon essential troubles that described the duration. However the hyperlinks are vulnerable, and the subplots episodic. You emerge as wishing greater display time were dedicated to the smaller, more relatable stories.

The Best Selected Beauty Tips for Teenage Girls

  Wash and cleanse

Teenage ladies are virtually one of the busiest due to their school activities and, of the path, the blooming social life. This is the most fundamental of all splendor guidelines for teenage girls because splendor and pores and skin care begin with an easy face. A habitual of cleaning the face is a have to every morning and earlier than snoozing. Make it a point to use a gentle soap, moisturizer, and toner which suit your skin type.

 Ditch the mouse, welcome BB lotions

Splendor guidelines for teenage ladies are cautiously set make makeup on retaining their touchy and sensitive skin. Foundation creams make-supply an excessive amount of cake and are probably a primary purpose of zits and blemishes. To avoid this, teenagers should act to the usage of more secure products like BB creams, which are becoming quite a few right reception from the young women. Plus, most BB creams incorporate sunscreen substance; the usage of it is a completely really useful splendor tip for women to follow.

 Chic with organic

Splendor and pores and skin care among teenage ladies are very important. The younger skin is probably at its greatest elasticity however it’s also more prone to dust and irritation. One beauty tip for teenage women is to use herbal products in treating zits and different pores and skin issues. For one, you may use lemon slices because of the anti-bacterial remedy for zits and zits; used tea baggage for rejuvenating your eyes; and brown sugar for exfoliation.

 Cross easily on 

Yes, placing on is a laugh, however, there are usually precautions mainly when managing delicate skin. one of the without a doubt important beauty recommendations for teenage girls is to continually hold your dabbed truly. Less is more as they say. Consider to keep it balanced, while you need to play around with a rainbow of eyeshadow colors, you have to preserve your lipstick color to a minimal. Also, one beauty hints for ladies is to hold a young and dewy look for your cheeks, pick out a cream blush on as opposed to the powdered one.

 Be lovely interior

Eating healthful and preserving a workout routine is surely one of the great splendor guidelines for teenage girls. This does not simplest assist you preserve your health, it Additionally gives your face and the relaxation of your body a natural glow. beauty and pores and skin care are a splendid deal to have a tendency to and also you have to feed your frame with plenty of healthy substances plus those endorphins you get from exercising.

Trapped? What to Do With Aging Parents and Growing Kids

Your parents gave the start to you in the overdue ’60s early ’70s and guy what an early life. You clearly played outside, accumulated friends for a recreation of soccer, or had that weekly trash speak recreation of tennis at the nearby rec middle. Now anyone is grown with youngsters of their personal and evening basketball exercise, homework, and summer camps are the norm. And what about the one’s dad and mom who did the nice they might with what they knew, to raise you into an upstanding citizen – they may be nonetheless right here. In different words, they’re no longer useless, have no longer handed on, and have not long gone to satisfy their maker.

So what are we able to do with growing older mother and father and developing children? – Two matters. Have a laugh and take images of the entirety (or video it).

As time marches on, and yes it waits for no one, existence turns into all the extra precious. If I may also evaluate time to the speed of your WiFi – on every occasion you switch around it’s coming at a faster and quicker velocity. The children are developing up so fast and mom and dad have located a manner to slow down the getting old procedure. It’s 3 generations taking part in existence at the identical time. Isn’t that precious. Oh, what reminiscences for the family.

So start nowadays collecting the own family around for photographs. sure, do the formal and the informal, like you did in college. Have fun, chat, and of route proportion a meal. Then seize the closest telephone, pill, or fireplace up the computing device and produce that domestic movie. Do not watch for the circle of relatives reunion – some of you could no longer make it.

it’s the weekend and the chores want to be completed at your “old” residence and the children have a game. clutch the gear, load up the van, forestall by mom and pops, and anyone joins the caravan to go see the infants in action.

Please delete or upload the antique photos and motion pictures so that you can free up reminiscence – we Don’t want any surprises. And please ensure each person has enough battery life.

No issues. The grandparents recognize all approximately downloading apps, YouTube, and Facebook. Ain’t existence grand! three generations living and absolutely everyone is up-to-speed on the trendy device – making it easy and interesting to build lasting reminiscences.

So what’s there to do? Have fun and report the whole thing. Time is passing, and passing fast, but you could sluggish it down and seize the treasured moments.

Several Benefits of Taking Loans

Loans are pretty common nowadays. To define the procedure of a loan it is able to be said that it’s far the investment that facilitates the groups can use to buy raw materials, machinery or other matters once they do no longer have the desired quantities.

There are numerous types of mortgage options to be had for one to pick. no longer simplest commercial enterprise loans one can also avail non-public loans which are exceptional to fulfill the character needs of the man or woman.

Kinds of loans-

Small commercial enterprise loans

Those are given out to the new marketers the advances that they could use to start a brand new commercial enterprise or expand an older business.

Payday loans

Those kinds of loans are given many to the employees of an employer or an office. The loans are small in quantity and must be repaid to the financing company inside a brief length, now not extending a length of six months.

Private loans

Whether it is for paying his bills or for purchasing a new motorbike or an electronic device he likes, someone can observe for a private mortgage. Of direction, the amount is sanctioned to him at the pursuit that he has an amazing credibility score and is willing to repay in the time body set by means of the financing company.

Mortgages

Those forms of loans are given out in trade for belonging which the borrower is prepared to risk. Failing to pay returned the loan quantity causes the person to give away the property to the fund providing organization.

Pupil loans

If a Student desires to retain similarly take a look at but is not able to do so due to the insufficient budget, he/she will be able to take a Pupil loan. This mortgage pays off all of the costs of the establishments and he/she can repay returned the cash in installments within a stipulated time frame.

Why one must take a loan

• Everybody, be it someone, a Scholar or a company can practice for a loan. • The proprietor of an organization does now not have to arrange the cash from his personal. • The manner of getting a loan is problem loose. The borrower can get a mortgage from any of the financing agencies, banks, and many others. • The repayment options are smooth and within the attain of the common citizen. The hobby charges are low.